The fever of the logistics park: there are already 270 distributed throughout Spain in what is its new great industry

It is not necessary to use statistics or market studies. To check the rise of e-commerce It comes with seeing how delivery traffic has increased or taking a map and doing something as simple as counting how many logistics parks there were five years ago and how many there are now. This last indicator was just analyzed by the DBK Sectoral Observatory de Informa and its conclusion is surprising: in recent years, have opened 82 in Spain, most do not do much.

His calculations, collected in the Logistics Parks Special Report, point out that between 2019 and 2021, 82 new parks opened their doors. Of these, more than half were also inaugurated over the last year. The period that the DBK technicians are analyzing is very marked by the pandemic, which had a decisive influence on electronic commerce. According to CNMC data, only during the fourth quarter of 2020, the turnover of electronic commerce in Spain increased by 9.3% and reached 14,613 million euros. mid 2021 the rise was 13.7%.

The combination of that boom of the e-commerce and the increasing outsourcing of logistics services prompted the opening of new centers throughout Spain to add, as a whole, 279 installations. In terms of locations, the communities that have registered the greatest increase are Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Catalonia. Of the 82 new parks registered by the DBK observatory technicians, 70 —about 85%— were concentrated in those three regions.

On the hunt for “suitable locations”

The new parks and the “growth” of the logistics muscle translates into a significant increase in the space dedicated to activity in Spain. its overall area increased 9.8% in 2021 up to 73 million square meters. The buildable area also grew to 36 million square meters. The key, says the report, is “the great dynamism of the demand for logistics services” and the expansion of electronic commerce. Also “the growing need for specialized facilities” and the opening of centers in “suitable locations”.

The study also helps to obtain an X-ray of the sector, its distribution at a corporate level and even concentration: the 279 parks spread across the country would be managed by a hundred companies, most of them dedicated to the operation of a single logistics center.

This level of fragmentation does not mean that there are also certain businesses with a significant weight in the sector: half of the supply of parks would in fact be managed by ten operators and the five entities with the greatest capacity bring together around 38% of the buildable area.

As for the future, the study points out There is also a clear trend: there are no signs that growth will slow down. The forecasts are that the wind farm market will continue to rise, driven by outsourcing, the increase in e-commercethe increasing complexity of the services and that the new installations also require a greater technological endowment.

Their estimates are in line with those of other organizations, such as UNO, the Logistics and Transport Business Organization of Spainwhat in March I drew also a scenario of increase, both in electronic commerce and in contracts related to logistics and the movement of goods. The rise of e-commerce this exercise, they estimated, will move between 6 or 8%. Logistically, there are new parks planned, such as the one foreseen by Merlin Properties in the Corredor de Henares, the LPG in Illescas or the one that drives the signature Panattoni in Seville.

Cover image | Logistics Square